Slytherin Army [HP]

30. The Ones That Vanished

Cyndee waited until they'd disappeared into the boy's dormitory, then sank down, looking terrified.

"Thanks, Cyndee, you saved me." Drew hugged her.

Cyndee smiled briefly and got up again. "I'm fine. And you're welcome."

"We really don't know who did it..." Drew mused. "I've always wondered." Malfoy had said it was two fourth or fifth years. Both boys, with dark hair and fair skin. Xavier told her he'd interrogated every single person in Slytherin of the right age and couldn't be sure who it was. Malfoy had refused to report it, and Xavier didn't care enough to continue investigating.

They could still be at Hogwarts for all they knew.

The moment was broken by a loud thump of someone flopping into a sofa.

Drew turned to the sound, seeing that it was Graham. While his sister was willowy, he was barrel-chested and Drew kept mistaking him for a boulder. Only there was no mistaking the fancy 'I' shining on his robes.

After making sure Cyndee really was fine, Drew got closer, and her nose wrinkled with disgust, "Why do you have an Inquisitorial Squad badge on?"

Graham sat up and took the pin off, sticking it in his pocket self-consciously. "She knew I helped the D.A. And she said I couldn't be the Quidditch Captain if I didn't join."

"Oh, so you just joined. What happened to being all righteous?"

He grunted with irritation. "Of course I had to. Quidditch is my life, okay? I want to be there to lead my team. And sure, most of my players are terrible this year. Crabbe and Goyle were the only Beaters who could hit anything at the tryouts. And Malfoy was a jerk and insisted I choose them. Hey, you should've tried out."

"Not interested. Plus, Crabbe slashed my Nimbus last time. Didn't Flint technically kick him off the team?"

Graham hesitated. "I won't let him do anything this time."

"This is not the point. The Inquisitorial Squad is evil. It's filled with prejudice and only exists to make Gryffindors more miserable."

"Believe me, I'm well aware of that, but I'm not planning on doing anything. I'll take off a few points here and there so Umbridge'll lay off me. Maybe from Fred and George. They're always doing something and I bet they wouldn't even care."

"Yeah, fine," she sighed.

She returned to her friends, who had taken over one of the couches. Cyndee was staring at the ceiling, a sign that she was talking to someone and didn't want to be bothered.

Wilby was still reading. She wondered if he was actually heeding what Trelawney had said about finding "him" this year, and that was why he was suddenly so keen to find his father. She wished he'd stop.

Eliza and Isabell were having a whisper-argument in the corner, which in the past would've amused her, but now it just made her sad. They both seemed very distraught, too.

Blaise was fixing his hair like he always was, so that was one person who had stayed the same. He looked at her in his hand mirror. "Angry at the injustice of the world?"

"That and everything else."

Montague stood up, pinning his badge on. "I'm going to go dock five points from a random Gryffindor," he announced to no one in particular.

Adrian Pucey did a bored wave, "Come back in one piece."

* ° * ° *

That night, Isabell appeared in the doorway of their room, face downcast. She appeared to be trembling, but it was hard to tell in the dim lighting.